The divergence of opinion about the extent of women’s ministry in the early church is due in part to the diversity of practice in the various New Testament communities, but it seems clear that as ministry changed from a function (exercising a gift) to an office, women were increasingly excluded… As the church began to conform to the society around it, some of its original social radicalism was lost… Max Weber… pointed out that movements which begin with a charismatic leadership must undergo a process of routinization into a hierarchically organized and self-sustaining social system. (Max Weber, The Sociology of Religion (1922; Boston: Beacon Press, 1964)). In its earliest days, the primitive church recognized the truth of the prophet Joel’s description of the ‘day of the Lord’: ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy’ (Joel 2:28, italics mine; cf. Acts 2). Perhaps it is time to look back to our roots as a church. In the words of the apostle Paul, ‘If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit’ (Galatians 5:25).

Bonnie Bowman Thurston, The Widows: A Women’s Ministry, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989. pp. 19, 115, 117.